The countdown has started for a new international awareness day taking place 18 March 2018 which is dedicated to securing the future of the planet through recycling.

The initiative was officially kicked off at the Bureau of International Recycling’s (BIR) 2017 World Recycling Convention in New Delhi on 16 October 2017, with the switch-on of the Global Recycling Day website (globalrecyclingday.com) and launch of the Day’s social media channels Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn by Ranjit Baxi, President of the BIR – the global federation of the recycling industry.

The first ever Global Recycling Day will unite people across the world, highlighting the need to conserve our six primary resources (water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals) and celebrating the power of the newly termed “Seventh Resource”- the goods we recycle every day. The new initiative is the brain child of Ranjit Baxi, who announced his vision for a day deciated to recycling at the inauguration of his Presidency at the BIR’s 2015 Dubai Convention.

Every year the earth yields billions of tons of natural resources to create consumables. At some point, there could be nothing left. That is why the world must think again about what is thrown away – seeing not waste, but opportunity. This is the core message of the Day.

Global Recycling Day will be a day focused on action, aimed at a global approach towards recycling and calling on world leaders, international businesses, communities and individuals to make seven clear commitments in their approach to recycling.

These commitments are:

Focus on international legislation and agreements.

Boost free and fair trade of recycling materials across the globe.

Educate, from grass roots up, the public on the critical necessity of recycling.

Agree to a common language of recycling.

To make recycling a community issue, supporting schemes and initiatives which help households and businesses provide Seventh Resource materials for repurposing.

Work with the industry to encourage ‘design for recycling’ in the repurposing of materials – reducing waste, integrating ‘end-of-life’ planning at design stage.

Support innovation, research and initiatives that foster better recycling practices and technology.

The single biggest mission of Global Recycling Day is to make the world focus on recycling for 24 hours and for people to change at least one habit.

Ranjit Baxi commented: “Primary resources, as we all know, are finite. It is our collective duty, across the globe, to preserve, respect and make the best use of virgin resources.

“The world has six significant natural resources – water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals. My goal in envisaging, and now launching, Global Recycling Day is to show the world that there is a Seventh Resource, as precious as and more sustainable than all the others, the materials we recycle.

“Climate Change is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security and other dimensions. It is therefore imperative to promote a sustainable solution which will turn this challenge into an opportunity.”

The Global Recycling Day website will have three key messages; to LEARN, SIGN and DO. Visitors to the site will be able to LEARN about the recycling industry, how to support recycling initiatives at a personal and community level, and more about the Seventh Resource; SIGN a petition at change.org to show world leaders the change that is needed to make recycling a truly global concern and DO by joining in the day of action on March 18 and sharing good practice on social media.